The Irish standard., 1887-02-19
SOLDERING IN AFRICA.
A Frencllnlan's Remarkable Adventu
While Captive Among the Arabs.

A Frencllnlan's Remarkable Adventures
While a Captive Among the Arabs.
A lot of emigrants stepped from the
car at the Union depot recently.
Among them was French1nan
named Victor Muller, with his wife
and two children. He had Il remark
able story Of adventure his life, and
as he rested in hotel preparatory to
going out house-hunting he related it
to a reporter as follows:
| "When I was young l had great
love for the army, and at the
age of seventeen / Went to Stras-
Tbourg to become a soldier | was put
into an infantry regiment, from wh:ch
[ was transferred in six weeks to the
Third regiment of zouaves. While
among them l was sent to Algicrs.
where 7 staid for about fifteen years,
fighting the Arabs Or living the miser-
able life Of French soldier in Tan
gier.''
"Why miserabie?''
"Well, the country is awfully hot
and anybody who is not used toll suf-
ters terribly
s'Did you do any active service:?n
Eyes, and plenty Of it. The Arabs
on the northern coast Of Afric;. are con-
stantly reyclting against the supremacy
of the French, whom that country costs
many Il drop Of blood i'll q year. Many
a friend did lose while ] was out
there. Once whom We we're on the
desert-we had been after t detach-
ment Of Arab horsenen--we ost our
way, and we roamed tor about a week
through the vast sea OF sand which
stretches itself through the northern
part Of Africa--the Sahara. Our sup
| ply of water had given out, and we
were almost dying Of thirst, while our
k,lapsacks with provisions were almost
empty. To get some water and some
food we resorted at last to the measure
Of killing one Of tho canels that we had
with us The camel has a stomach which
is divided into four parts, one OF which
contains the water just as the animal
drinks it. We opened that part, and to
our e'reatjoy there was enough water to
give lis all at least a cupful each. On
the sixth day our number had dwindled
down to seven, when - cavalc;,de Of
Arabian horse,nen came upon us, and
we, being too weak to defend ourselves,
We're made prisoners and taken to
Taghit, a town in Morocco.
':Here our Captain was killed in the
most horrible manner by the Arabs.
They tore his nails one by one from his
fingers, cut out his tongue, and
chopped off his ears before they finally
killed him. myself was sold the eneNt
day to Il rich Moor, who made me his
valet T had here comparatively an easy
life. but they forced me there to join the
religion OF Mobammed. Unfortunately
my master died, and he leaving no
heirs was taken back by the Govern
ment rs their property. They, not
being able to dispose OF NE jnnlnediate
ly, sent me TO Morocco, where I WAS
put into a dungeon among criminals OF
the most degraded character. How
ever, ] appealed to the Sultan, through
the governor Of the prison, and was
released. prime ,;lly because had be
come Mussu- nan. ran through the
town, from one end to the other, when
at last 1 found occupation with u He
brew, who took me jn us a watcr-car-
rier and general servant. A. soon us |
had saved some money, ( LETT Morocco
for Algicrs. The dangers ] encount
cred on my long and wearjsome jour
new were horrib]e-not SO much from
the people or from beasts as from Che
horrible climate. For five days [ trav~
e!ed through q d1ealy, barren desert.
was without food for two days. On
several occasions l was mis,ed by the
Fata Morgana. The Fatte Morgana is
q reflection of some distant place in the
rays Of the sun, and is very tleceiving
to travellers, especially on the desert.
/ had left Tlemeen, the town where
Abd-el-Kader vanished the French in
1885, the day previous. When got
on the desert I had a small flask Of
water, which l had been obliged to
buy, as there was drought in Tie
meen, making water so scarce that it
sometimes came to twenty centimes
(four cents) a pint.
"When the water in my flask gave
out seemed to feel awfully thirsty; [
became terribly detected, my head felt
dizzy and ached dreadfully. I was
wishing for the next town with all my
heart. The sun shone down upon the
country with scorching heat. The sand
was so hot that it burned the soles OF
my feet. With fainting heart lifted
up my head to see whether any trees or
houses appeared on the horizon. Look
ING up [ was pleasantly surprised by |
in the distance beautiful vii
Eage. The little one-story white houses
were surrounded with large trees,
whose beautiful green foliage, in con-
rast to the white houses, made up
I. nice picture. I FASTENED to reach
:he spot as quickly as possible, but
my disappointment when 1
:ound that the glorious oasis was moth
ng but d deception. The next day. al
most at the point of death, came to a